Acts 3:1-3:26
Introduction:
*story of Chinese student Cherry, mask of happiness, and finding true inner happiness*
*English Corner – explain how ECs worked, topics like joy, happiness, peace were probably the most fruitful for becoming Gospel conversations*
Shifting focus from how we can have peace, hope, and joy in troubled times to how we can be used by God to help other people. Beautiful fruit to develop in our lives, but the thing about fruit is that it is meant to be shared. A fruitful tree doesn’t just benefit itself; it benefits birds, animals, and us humans with its fruit.
Text: Acts 3:1-4:12
Theme: Peter and John using hard circumstances to glorify God and share the Gospel.
Story 1, Acts 3:1-8 – Suffering of others is addressed and then becomes an opportunity to share Jesus
Setting:
Ninth hour = 3PM in the afternoon, not 9AM or 9PM. The first hour didn’t begin for them at midnight, but with daylight coming – around 6AM.
The ninth hour was a daily time of sacrifice and worship at the temple. This was still extremely early in the days of the church – perhaps no later than a month after Jesus returned to heaven. Christians were almost exclusively Jewish at this point in time and they were still involved in the norms of Jewish life, so probably Peter and John were going to the temple to worship just like every other devout Jew.
It’s also quite possible they were headed there with the express purpose of evangelism. Jesus often did things just like this when He was with them. He and His disciples would go to the temple and synagogues to worship, and it was there that they also ministered and spread the good news.
As they approach the temple a lame man asks them for alms. This was a man lame from birth. The Bible points this out to make clear that what happens next is a miracle. He wasn’t merely injured, or confused, or faking it. His feet had not been used since birth and were no doubt deformed and shriveled.
What happens then must have been shocking. Peter looks at him and says “I have no silver and gold, but what I do have I give to you. In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”
And immediately this man’s feet and ankles are made strong. He leaps up and begins walking and leaping and praising God.
Whatever problems had been present – whether it was that his feet were shriveled, deformed, muscles non-existent, whatever it was, the problems were immediately fixed by God’s power, and not just fixed, but made strong.
And side note here: when God addresses something, He doesn’t just do a patch-up job of it. God does all things well. This man lame from birth was made into a fit jumper.
But I want to focus particularly on what this story means to us in practice.
For Peter and John, this suffering that the man was going through was something to be cared about and addressed. When this man – lame from birth – asked them for alms, they did not ignore him. They looked directly at the man and asked for him to look at them. This tells us that the lame man wasn’t even looking at them personally. He was speaking “alms” into the crowd, repeating it over and over as people passed through the gate.
It would have been so simple to ignore the request. Or to address it in a flippant way. Because they were not put on the spot by him. Instead they put him on the spot, and demand his attention. They go out of their way to address the problem directly, without needing to be put on the spot to do it.
And they also do what they can.
I take “I have no silver and gold” literally. I don’t think that was an excuse. I think this verse has become a favorite of some for all the wrong reasons – they look at it as a cop out for not helping people who are in need.
“Peter didn’t give silver or gold, so I don’t need to either.” Is a common conclusion.
Peter didn’t have silver or gold. He was a poor fisherman and he hadn’t been doing much fishing since he became a disciple of Jesus. Well, he did a lot of fishing – but Jesus made him and John into fishers of men instead of actual fish. He literally didn’t have any silver or gold – at least not any on him at that moment.
Now, there is a reason to not give to someone – when they aren’t in need, and they are just being lazy. The Bible says “if a man is not willing to work, he ought not to eat.” But for those who have legitimate needs, the teachings of the Bible compel us to care and try to do something about it. And Peter and John actively did.
Peter didn’t have any gold or silver, but what he had was much, much better.
Peter was in tune with God and Peter knew that God wanted to glorify His Son Jesus Christ by healing this man and causing him to walk again. So Peter gave what he could give – which was the name of Jesus. And by calling upon Jesus to act, and the man having faith in the name of Jesus, the lame man is healed.
So Peter gave what he could give. In one sense, Peter later clarifies; it was not Peter doing this. Peter makes clear that it wasn’t some specialness or particular power in himself that caused this man to be healed. The man was healed by God and through faith in the name of Jesus.
But he also says “what I have I give to you.” So what did he have to give? The name of Jesus. By invoking the name of Jesus he calls upon Jesus’ authority and power and the man is healed through faith in Jesus’ authority and power.
Now, today, we don’t have the apostolic authority that Peter had. But we do have a relationship with Jesus and we do have His name to share with people and through faith in that name people are healed.
Jesus said to his apostles “whatsoever you bind on the earth has been bound in heaven and whatsoever you loose on the earth has been loosed in heaven.” The terms “bind and loose” were used to mean prohibiting and permitting, or opening and closing. Jesus thus gave the apostles a very unique authority to declare things prohibited, permitted, opened, or closed and it was so. We see them doing this often in the book of Acts. You and I don’t have the authority to go boldly up to a lame person and say “in the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk!”
We don’t have that authority – but, we do have a relationship with Jesus and we do have the name of Jesus to share with people. And we can pray and they can pray, and God can do miraculous things if it be his will. He has miraculously healed many who have prayed in faith.
This passage isn’t intended to encourage us to try to precisely mimic Peter’s behavior to heal lame people, because we don’t have such authority.
Instead, we should draw that a servant of God, did what he could for a man in need, and God worked powerfully through that man to work a miracle. And as far as the spirit of the passage goes, we can live up to that.
We have needy people all around us. People we may or may not be ignoring. And God has given us various means and abilities to help those people in need.
When we see someone in need, do we ignore them? Do we only address the need when we are put on the spot? Or do we go out of our way to help?
Us fulfilling this passage in our lives today might well look like this “I have no special authority or healing powers, but what I do have I give to you – God has given me more money than I need so here is a gift card to Kroger. Also, let me tell you about the God I know who is able to help us in all of our problems and weaknesses. His name is Jesus.”
Doesn’t matter if you have money or not, or what you have. God has given you something and given every Christian the name of Jesus to share.
And He wants us to be sharing His gifts with other people, and especially the name of Jesus for His glory.
Link: And we do this for His glory, not our own, as we see in what happens next.
Story 2, Acts 3:9-26 – The praise of others becomes a way to glorify God and a Gospel opportunity
Peter recognized that the people had misunderstood the miracle and were prepared to give the credit for it to Peter and John.
But Peter says, no, God has glorified His son Jesus and this man has been healed through faith in the name of Jesus. And not only was he healed, but he’s been given perfect health.
Peter knows a good object lesson when he sees one. Here is a man who had a debilitating problem from birth and God has restored him to perfect health. What an excellent parallel to how we as humans are sinners, but God is able to save us and restore us to a perfect relationship with Him through faith in Jesus.
So Peter naturally goes right into sharing the Gospel. And boy, he doesn’t pull any punches with this one, does he?
He tells them not just generally that they are sinners, but he tells them their worst sin very specifically – they “denied the Holy and Righteous One and asked for a murderer to be granted to you, and you killed the Author of life, whom God raised from the dead.”
Side point here: Jesus is here called the Author of life. Jesus is more than a mere man, or prophet, or angel, He is the divine Son of God.
And they were personally involved in killing him, only a few months ago. That event is still very fresh and raw in their minds.
He extends to them some grace and mercy in saying “I know that you acted in ignorance” – Jesus Himself on the cross said “Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do.”
[In chapter 4:4 we find the answer to this prayer – many of those who had heard the word believed. Jesus asked that they be forgiven for killing him, and here they are forgiven as they place their faith in Jesus for forgiveness.]
Someday I’ll have to give a sermon focused in more on what Peter says here, because there are a lot of interesting things I’d love to communicate – like the significance of Peter saying “that times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord, and that he may send the Christ appointed for you, Jesus, whom heaven must receive until the time for restoring all the things about which God spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets long ago.”
There is so much here.
But at the heart of it, in its basic structure, it’s a presentation of the Gospel.
- He speaks of sin and the danger of judgement.
- The Holy Son of God who was slain and then raised from the dead.
- The need to repent from sins and place your faith in Jesus for God’s blessing.
And he personalizes it for the audience. His audience here was Jewish, and that’s why he says things like “you are the sons of the prophets.”
The purpose of the story is not specifically to teach us about how to share the Gospel with others, but we can from it by observing Peter and John’s example.
We see that they don’t miss an opportunity to share the Gospel. They recognize that the combination of God’s direct intervention to heal this lame man, and the people’s positive reaction to it, opens up a perfect witnessing opportunity – and they take it.
I think a lot of us, probably all of us, often miss opportunities to share the Gospel because we aren’t really looking for them and aren’t sensitive enough to the situations around us.
But two of the most common and best circumstances are right here – when you and others notice that God has done something truly special, now is probably a good time to share the Gospel with others. And also, when someone wants to praise you for something and the praise rightly belongs to God and not you, now is probably a good time to share the Gospel with others. Both of these circumstances give a relatively open and natural link into talking about God and what He has done in the Gospel.
An example: let’s say God leads you to go help someone in need. Say, you know of a family that is hungry and poor and you give them some food or perhaps help to make them aware of the pantry we have here or something like that. And then that person thanks you or praises you for it. You can say “hey, I’m no one special, I just know what it’s like to be in need and God has helped me to see that I should help other people. He made this change in my life several years ago. I used to be a person who ran from God and disobeyed Him. I sinned, a lot. And God saw that I had a need for being saved. So God sent His only Son Jesus into the world to pay the penalty for my sins for me by dying on a cross. God helped me to have faith in Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection and He saved me and made me a new person. I don’t know if you know Jesus or not, but He can do that for you too if you don’t know Him.”
Opportunities like these come a lot more often than we realize, because we aren’t as ready for them as we ought to be.
A ready tongue, an alert mind, and some courage can lead to helping people with the greatest trouble of all – that of their separation from God due to their sins.
Application: